Larissa, having won the mother-in-law lottery, has come to love Julia. After struggling with getting pregnant, she relies on Julia’s support. However, months after the baby is born – her husband finds something that makes them question exactly how Julia helped the situation.
When I married Toby, I was lucky enough to be one of those girls who had a magical mother-in-law. Julia was everything I wanted in a mother-in-law — she was kind and loving, and didn’t regard me just as an extension of her family. Instead, she adopted me as her daughter.
“I told you,” Toby said one day when I told him that I was so grateful Julia had accepted me.
“She’s loved you since the beginning, Larissa.”
A bride leaning on a woman | Source: Pexels
Despite her age, Julia was just full of life. She constantly walked in and out of our home, ready to throw herself into our kitchen.
“I just want to feed you guys,” she told me when I asked her to sit down, ready to cook for her instead.
“I don’t have anything else to do besides meet the ladies for drinks,” she chuckled.
It usually ended with us cooking together — Toby coming home to music and laughter echoing in the kitchen.
People cooking | Source: Pexels
My parents were across the country because I had moved for college, and ended up settling down here with Toby. And as much as phone and video calls kept me close to my family, at the end of the day, Julia filled the role of a mother — a mother in close proximity anyway.
After three years of being married, Toby and I were trying to have a baby.
“I’m ready if you are,” Toby told me. “I think it’s time now.”
I agreed with Toby. I was ready — I wanted to be a mom.
So, we began trying. And for months, we just couldn’t get pregnant. And the longer we tried, the more reality set in. Maybe we just weren’t meant to have biological children.
An emotional couple embracing | Source: Pexels
“What do you want to do?” I asked Toby. “Keep trying?”
Toby nodded. I knew that he wouldn’t ask me to do anything I didn’t want to do, but I also...
